June 3, 2016

On That Stunning Forehand from the Paris Labor Uprising

Did someone say protest rally?

Critics and theorists have discussed for decades how much media turns conflict into spectacle and infotainment and moves us further from, rather than closer to actual issues and events. This classic “tennis photo” from the uprising in Paris against draconian labor laws could almost be seen as the last word. It brilliantly illustrates — if we’re talking about visual media and the consumption of visual media — how much protest and conflict has become a spectator sport.

Break point? No love lost? Paris Match. I mean, what a riot for the newsfeed.

(photo: Stephane Mahe/Reuters: A protester in Nantes, France, used a tennis racket to return a tear gas canister in a demonstration on Thursday against proposed changed in French labor laws.)